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1 Ne 12. In these verses Nephi is seeing the future of his decendants. After the visit of Christ to the Americas the people live in righteousness for 3 generations. However, after that they begin to become wicked and are eventually destroyed.

1 Ne 12:18: Word of the justice. "word of justice" originally "sword of the justice" but mis-transcribed into the printers manuscript (see e.g. Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 7:1 "Joseph Smith's Translation of the Book of Mormon: Evidence for Tight Control of the Text")

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1 Ne 12:1: Was Nephi prevented from seeing these people up close and determining their exact identities?

1 Ne 12:8: Why is this the only place in the scriptures where "Twelve Disciples" is capitalized?

1 Ne 12:9: An angel tells Nephi that the Twelve Apostles will judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Is this a reference to what will happen at the judgement day or does this judgement happen at some other time?

1 Ne 12:10: What does it mean to say that these individuals are righteous forever?

1 Ne 12:11: We know that wickedness returned to Nephite society between 194 and 245 AD (see 4 Ne 1:20 and 4 Ne 1:40). The same chapter tells us that the first generation passed away between 71 and 110 AD (see 4 Ne 1:14 and 4 Ne 1:18) and that the second generation was almost gone by 200 AD (see 4 Ne 1:22). Thus it seems that in 4 Nephi each generation lasted about 100 years. So why is Nephi saying that Nephite society did not become wicked until the third generation had passed and the fourth or fifth had started?

1 Ne 12:12: Why did Nephi see his people's faith dwindle in later generations?

1 Ne 12:13: Why did Nephi write about "multitudes of the earth" when other Old Testament prophets talked about "a multitude of people" (Gen 48:4), "a multitude of nations" (Gen 48:19), the "multitude of Israel" (2 Sam 6:19), and "the multitude of all the nations" (Isa 29:7)?

1 Ne 12:14: How was it possible to distinguish between these two groups if they had just spent two centuries intermarrying with one another?

1 Ne 12:15: If Lamanites emerged around 194 AD (see 4 Ne 1:20), then why is Nephi led to believe in this vision that the split between his seed and his brother's seed occurred during the fourth or fifth generation from the time Christ appeared?

1 Ne 12:16: Is the angel trying to compare the river of filthy water to the era of Nephite apostasy that has started unfolding in Nephi's vision?

1 Ne 12:17: How do temptations "blindeth the eyes" and "hardeneth the hearts" of people?

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Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.